1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a patting mechanism, and more specifically to a patting mechanism, which can be operated automatically.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today many people lead a busy life which is highly active and busy without getting enough rest, and therefore pain may occur in the neck and shoulders. Once the neck and shoulder pain is accumulated over a long time, it can affect the entire body, contributing to a variety of health issues. In order to alleviate this problem, self-massage is the most common way to relieve pain in the body, but it is insufficient for many persons to relax the muscles by using their fingers, such that a manual patting massager can be used to help release tension in certain muscles. However, the manual patting massager is operated to hit in a restricted zone and meanwhile a user is difficult to control hitting strength, resulting in that the manual patting massager will fail to meet the user's expectation.
Besides massage, a little pat on a patient's back will help the patient cough up phlegm from the patient's lungs, preventing pneumonia or bronchitis caused by accumulation of excessive phlegm in the lungs. A known mucus clearance device is disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. M403340, which comprises a motor and a cam connected with the motor. When the cam is rotated, a rod is pushed by the cam to drive a patting member to tap the patient's back. However, the prior art device is inconvenient for the user to use because the user needs somebody's help to operate the prior art device, and further, the cam and the rod are in direct contact with each other such that the cam or the rod is easy to wear when used for long periods of time, causing a negative influence on the operation of the prior art device.